Imation & Exabyte Announce Strategic Agreement

Imation Invests USD$20 Million for Exclusive Worldwide Marketing & Distribution Rights to Exabyte Data Storage Media & Equity Position in Exabyte

OAKDALE, Minn. and BOULDER, Colo. (November 10, 2003) — Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN), a worldwide leader in removable data storage media, and Exabyte Corp. (OTCBB: EXBT), a performance and value leader in tape backup systems, today announced an agreement that establishes Imation as the exclusive worldwide distributor of Exabyte brand media products. As part of the agreement, Imation will also make an equity investment in Exabyte, representing less than five percent of total equity. The total dollar value of the transaction, when fully completed, is $20 million, the majority of which is for distribution rights.


Under the agreement, Exabyte will sell all of its media products exclusively to Imation. Imation will manage the Exabyte media brand and provide sales, marketing and distribution services for Exabyte media products worldwide — including VXA and Mammoth technologies. This partnership utilizes Imation’s worldwide distribution capabilities and global customer reach to enhance the sales and distribution of Exabyte media products, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Asia, where Imation has a long-established presence and customer base.


"Imation is committed to delivering the broadest portfolio of removable data storage media to the market as we leverage our efficient supply chain and global distribution capabilities. Adding the Exabyte VXA line to our portfolio is a powerful statement of our commitment to invest in profitable growth opportunities, and we expect it to be accretive," said Frank Russomanno, president, Imation's Data Storage and Information Management business. "Leading storage OEMs, end-user customers, and distributors continue to trust Imation’s industry leadership — from technology development and manufacturing know-how to our broad portfolio and extensive customer experience — to meet their needs for high-quality, reliable removable data storage media."


"Imation is a widely recognized business and technology leader in the data storage media market. Our relationship with Imation represents a major vote of confidence for the exciting opportunity we all see for VXA technology and the future of Exabyte," said Tom Ward, Exabyte president and CEO. "The Imation investment clearly validates the VXA format, provides capital for future product development and will help secure the VXA roadmap."


VXA Packet technology is a powerful solution for the fast growing small and mid-sized server markets that require high-capacity, high-performance data backup and disaster recovery solutions at an affordable price. The growing acceptance of Exabyte’s VXA Packet Technology by VARs and major OEMs, such as IBM’s selection of VXA-2 Packet Drives for its popular business class eServer lines — pSeries, iSeries and xSeries — was a key motivator that brought the companies together. During the last 14 months, Exabyte has signed nine new OEM agreements and enrolled more than 700 new resellers for its VXA products. In the nine months ended September 27, 2003, Exabyte reported $32 million in storage media revenues.


"We expect Exabyte media customers will experience little change in their business after a brief conversion period during which we will transition customer accounts to Imation," added Bob Ariniello, vice president of media, Exabyte’s team leader of the implementation plan. "Imation will use the same product part numbers previously used by Exabyte, which will help minimize the effort to switch sourcing to Imation. We believe all of our customers will benefit from Imation’s proven excellence in distribution and service."


Imation will be equipped to take orders from a select number of US distributors for Exabyte media beginning November 17, 2003, with full transition expected to be complete by end of the year. For more information, visit http://www.exabyte.com.

About Imation Corp.
Imation Corp. is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of magnetic and optical removable data storage media. With one of the broadest product lines in the industry—spanning from a few megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes of capacity in each piece of media—Imation serves customers in more than 60 countries, in both business and consumer markets. With more than 300 technology scientists and more than 300 data storage patents in the U.S. alone, Imation continues to pioneer today's proven magnetic and optical media technologies.

As of September 2003, Imation employed approximately 2,800 people worldwide. Revenues from outside the U.S. contribute approximately 53 percent of total sales. Additional information about Imation is available on the company’s website at www.imation.com, or by calling 1.888.466.3456.


About Exabyte Corporation
Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB: EXBT) provides innovative tape storage solutions to customers whose top buying criteria is value: capacity/price, speed, data reliability and ease-of-use. Exabyte, an industry innovator since 1987, is the recognized value-leader in tape storage and automation solutions for servers, workstations, LANs and SANs. With groundbreaking VXA Packet Technology, the most significant advancement in tape in the last decade, Exabyte’s VXA-2 solutions provide SMB and departmental users dramatically higher capacity, speed and data reliability at competitive prices. Exabyte’s drives and automation products are rugged, robust and reliable solutions for users of VXAtape™, LTO™ (Ultrium™) and MammothTape™. Exabyte has a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and resellers that share the company’s commitment to value and customer service, including partners such as IBM, HP, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Bull, Toshiba, Logitec, Apple Computer, Kontron, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, CDW and Arrow Electronics. For additional information, call 1.800.EXABYTE or visit www.exabyte.com. For investor relations inquiries, contact Kelly Beavers at investor@exabyte.com.

Exabyte, VXA and M2 are registered trademarks, and, Mammoth Tape is a trademark of Exabyte Corp. Imation and the Imation logo are trademarks of Imation Corp. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

The foregoing contains forward-looking statements related to both companies' products and business prospects. Such statements are subject to one or more risks. The actual results that the companies achieve may differ materially from such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties related to customer dependence, competition, product development, market demand, management of business and product transitions and other such risks as noted in the companies' 2002 Form 10-Ks. Please refer to the companies' Form 10-Ks and Forms 10-Qs for description of such risks.